The lost Hulme and Moss Side .....

Now I have been a great fan of Roger Shelley’s photographs for over a decade, ever since he shared a collection of pictures he took of a group of young lads playing in the near ruin of Hough End Hall nearly 60 years ago.

The attention to detail and his ability to capture the moment are skills I wish I had.

And so, I was very pleased when he posted another group of images he took during the house clearances in Hulme and Moss Side.

The pictures are a mix of street scenes, and the people he encountered, including kids at play, men and women at work and the ever present piles of rubble as the grand plan advanced and centuries old houses disappeared under the impact of the wrecking ball.

Like the work of Shirley Baker* his pictures don’t dwell on sentimentality and don’t make judgments of the wholesale clearances of communities.

They just record what he saw.

I don't have exact locations for the images, but some can be traced through the odd street name or feature.

And with his permission I will be working my way through the portfolio, fastening on images which tell their own stories.

Location; Hulme and Moss Side in the 1960s and 70s

Pictures;  from the collection of Roger Shelley, https://www.flickr.com/photos/photoroger/

*Baker, Shirley, Without a Trace, Manchester and Salford in the 1960s, 2018

William & Julia Relph of the Rising Sun a promise fulfilled

This is William Relph who ran the Rising Sun on the High Street from sometime in the 1880s till his death in 1909.

Now you can never be certain but it is more than likely that when a photographer turned up in the High Street in the summer of 1890 it will have been the landlord of the Rising Sun who came to the door to see what all the fuss was about.

And so this is William Relph and I have to own up to a mix of quiet satisfaction and fascination that I have tracked him down.

It was a promise I made in earlier stories and have now completed that promise.*

He was born in Greenwich in 1847 and came from a family that ran public houses.

What marks him out as a little special is that William saw his time out in both the old Rising Sun and the new one which still stands on the High Street.

The old pub according to our historian R.R.C Gregory was about 200 years old when it was demolished and replaced by the present pub in 1904.

Nor is that the only thing that intrigues me about William.

I had almost given up hope of finding him and then as you do I came across his widow Julia who was still in charge in 1911, and it was Julia who caught my imagination.

She was born in Cadiz, Spain and of course that raises all sorts of intriguing speculation.

But before I could go off on a flight of fancy I discovered her maiden name was West and like William her father was a publican.

That said her parents were in Spain between the birth of her brother in 1852 and when she was born two years later which may explain why they are missing from the census returns for the middle decades of the 19th century.

So there is more to find out but finding William and Julia of the Rising Sun is enough for now.

Pictures; from The story of Royal Eltham, R.R.C. Gregory, 1909 and published on The story of Royal Eltham, by Roy Ayers, http://www.gregory.elthamhistory.org.uk/bookpages/i001.htm  and Chrissie Rose February 2014

*Eltham’s Rising Sun, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Eltham%27s%20Rising%20Sun

Rediscovering our rural past, Thomas Ellwood and Mrs W C Williamson

We owe a great debt to the historians of the late 19th century who captured the memories of the people who lived in south Manchester when most of it was still countryside.

Thomas Ellwood and Mrs Williamson were working at a time when the rural communities of Chorlton, Burnage, Fallowfield and Rusholme were on the cusp of disappearing.

Within a generation they had all but gone and with it was went a rich storehouse of stories and popular culture.

Today what was left is fast fading from living memory, so with in another decade I doubt that there will be any left who remember the blacksmith on Beech Road or being sent to one of the local farms to collect fresh milk and butter.

This makes it exciting when there comes along an opportunity to give a wider audience the chance to read about that rural past.

Thomas Ellwood lived here in Chorlton and during the winter of 1885 into the spring of ’86 he collected and wrote accounts of Chorlton dating back into the 17th century.

These were published in the South Manchester Gazette and are available in Central Library, but they are on microfilm which makes them a tad more difficult to read.  Some of the articles reappeared in various church magazines but I have yet to find a complete set outside the Gazette.

In the case of Mrs Williamson her work appeared in a slender edition in 1888 and I have only been able to put my hands on one copy again from Central Library.

However Bruce Anderson whose local history site I have mentioned from time to time has digitized his own copy along with a number of other histories of Burnage, Fallowfield and Rusholme and they appear on Rusholme and Victoria Park Archive at  http://rusholmearchive.org/

‘Sketches of Fallowfield and the surrounding Manors, Past & Present’ By Mrs Williamson, “gives a very interesting account of how Fallowfield developed from fields between Rusholme & Withington in the 14th century, gradually becoming a desirable neighbourhood with church, chapel & schools in the third quarter of the 19th century. 

There are three maps, 1818, 1843 and 1885 that illustrate the changes during these years.”

She lived in Fallowfield with her husband, Professor William Crawford Williamson FRS. He was an eminent Victorian scientist who was appointed as the first Professor of Natural History (Geology, Zoology and Botany) at Manchester in 1851. 

Williamson was one of the great Victorian naturalists who knew and actively corresponded with Charles Darwin, Louis Agassiz, T.H. Huxley and other great scientists of the day. 

He also knew John Dalton and famously tended the great man during his final days, feeding him broth and other liquid sustenance. Williamson trained as a doctor and practised as an eye surgeon as well as pursuing his studies in the natural sciences.”

It is a wonderful book because it draws on the memories of those who experienced that rural life, and was a great help to me when writing my own account of Chorlton in the first half of the 19th century.*

And so for anyone wanting a vivid firsthand account of the handloom weavers of Burnage or the rush cart ceremony of Rusholme, Mrs Williamson and Bruce’s site have got to be worth a visit.

*THE STORY OF CHORLTON-CUM-HARDY, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/the-story-of-chorlton-cum-hardy-new.html

Pictures; Chorlton from the collection of Tony Walker, cover of Mrs Williamson's book from the collection of Bruce Anderson

An afternoon in Chorlton …… with a history of Withington

It was another of those well attended meetings at Chorlton Good Neighbours* and we were not disappointed by David Rydeheard’s talk on the history of Withington.

It started with maps which as everyone knows is a jolly good way of walking through the past, and we had four, covering the periods from 1820 through to 1934.

There at the start in 1820 was a very rural Withington which as David showed in subsequent maps was transformed by the march of urban development ranging from the grand properties of the people of plenty to the humble homes of the artisans.

And star of the presentation was the story of Withington swimming baths from its ambitious plans to the cut down version built by the City Council.

That said the finished product with its impressive, patterned windows and tiled walls is still a gem, and a gem which might have been demolished but for a community campaign which matched demonstrations with a carefully worked out business plan which did the trick.

The Baths were saved and today are the centre of a heap of community events as well as a place to enjoy a splash in the pools.

Nor was that al because David drew much social history from the provision of first- and second-class pools, and the limited access for women to the absence of a public laundry which were a feature of swimming baths in the poorer districts of the city.

Not content with the talk we had the opportunity to buy David’s book on the History of Withington Baths**, and the delightfully illustrated book A Bigger Splash, Withington Baths: Ten Years as a Community-Run Leisure Centre by the artist Len Grant***.

Pictures; An afternoon in Chorlton …… with a history of Withington, 2026, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Chorlton Good Neighbours, https://chorltongoodneighbours.org/

**Withington Baths, David Rydeheard, 2025, available from Withington Civic Society, www.withingtoncivicsociety.org.uk

***A Bigger Splash, Withington Baths: Ten Years as a Community-Run Leisure Centre, Len Grant, 2025 £15

On Edge Street in 1969 ........... waiting for something to happen

This is how I remember Edge Street, which is part of that warren of streets which is now known as the Northern Quarter.

Back in the late 1960s and early 70’s it looked tired and run down, waiting for something to happen.

The street was cut sometime before 1793, and the buildings are a mix of late 18th and early 19th century with some from succeeding decades and pretty much all of them have gone through multiple uses in their long existence.

Leaving aside the trail of litter, the street has that air of neglect, but that might just be because we have caught it on a Sunday, when everyone with any sense was elsewhere.

Of course it is very different today, the whole sale market at the end of the road closed a long time ago and is now part of a residential development, and some of the buildings lining Edge Street were demolished to make way for new ones, while the remainder have changed their use, reflecting the new Norther Quarter.

But the Bay Horse Tavern is still there on Thomas Street, and many of the residents and shopkeepers on this stretch of Edge Street, were not so different from their predecessors in 1911, who included a potato merchant at no. 32, a fruits salesmen, coal dealer, and shop keeper, although I suspect few in 1969 would have understand the need for the Patent Ice Company which operated from no.22.

Location; Edge Street, 1969,

Picture; Edge Street, 1969, Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection,
https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY,

"I had been bull ward in the bull ring, and once kept one of the gamest bulls in the country,” bull baiting on Chorlton Green

Now every so often you come across accounts of the bull baiting that went on in the township.  

The Bowling Green late 19th century

The stories usually appear on a slow week in one of the local newspapers and are nothing more than a reworking of one of the articles by the historian Thomas Ellwood.

Mr Ellwood wrote twenty-six articles during 1885 and 1886 and these were printed in the South Manchester Gazette.

Part of the value of them is that they drew on the memories of people who had grown up at the beginning of the 19th century and who could recall conversations from the generations before who had lived here during the late 18th century.

So building on Mr Ellwood and avoiding the easy route of plagiarism I dug deep into newspaper reports, census returns and the directories which provided confirmation of what went on in the township on the green over 200 years ago.

"Bull baiting was where bull was pitted against dog in a ring hemmed in by spectators. Our bull ring was situated in the centre of the village green.   The bull was fastened to a chain, about twenty yards long, which allowed him enough space to fight.

The dog’s tactic was to try and seize the bull by its nose but if the bull was well practised at the business, he would endeavour to get the dog on his horns, throw him high into the air and the fall would break his neck or back, but to avoid this, the dogs friends were ready to catch him, so as to break the force of his fall.  Eye witnesses often recalled seeing dead dogs which had been killed during the contest left in the ditches and hedge-rows.

The Horse & Jockey early 20th century

If the bull was slow or just not that good, the dog would not only seize him by the nose, but would hold on till the bull stood still, which was termed “Pinning the Bull”. I suppose to give the bull a chance only one dog was allowed in the ring at a time.

Contests were usually staged during the village wakes, and also at Easter and Whit Week.  Naturally the main sponsors for such events were the landlords of the Bowling Green and Horse and Jockey who had the most to gain from a gang of excited spectators outside their pubs.  

Not that they were alone in profiteering from the event.  The owner of the dog which successfully “Pinned the Bull” was awarded a prize and no doubt some went away the richer having bet on the winner.

There were those in the 1840s who could still remember the notable contests and spoke of the victorious bulls like “Young Fury”, son of “Old Fury” who was regularly brought and baited and the “bull men” like Edward Simmer, commonly known as “Ned” who afterwards was converted to a religious life, and finally became a Methodist local preacher.  

The Bowling Green late 19th century

Or John Cookson who at the inquest of Francis Deakin in 1847 had boasted that he “had been bull ward in the bull ring, and once kept one of the gamest bulls in the country.”  

But its popularity was on the wane and for some years it had all but died out before being revived by a butcher called James Moores, from Deansgate in Manchester.  Not that its revival was greeted by everyone.

There were those who had good reason to regret the appearance of James Moores and his bulls because as he travelled south from the city he brought hundreds “of men of the very lowest character to witness the proceedings.  

The sport, if that is what we can call it suffered another blow when Samuel Wilton enclosed the green in 1818 turning it into his garden."*

*Extract from THE STORY OF CHORLTON-CUM-HARDY, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/the-story-of-chorlton-cum-hardy.html

Pictures; The Bowling Green seen from the east from the collection of Tony Walker and the southern side of the Hotel from Alan Brown's collection, both from the late 19th century and the Horse & Jockey from the Lloyd collection early 20th century

My Eltham ………… half a century ago

Now, for all of us who left Eltham, and pretty much never really went back finding pictures of the place in the year we left can be bitter sweet.

On the one hand there are those warm nostalgic memories which are dashed by the changes, which just don’t fit with how you remember the place.

In my case it was the Eltham of the 1960s when I was growing up, attending Crown Woods and discovering the joys and pains of my first girlfriends.

And so when I left for Manchester in 1969 I rather thought the place would still be the same when I came back, which for a while it was, but in my absence, they moved the railway station, obliterated the old bus terminus, replaced Wilcox’s with a McDonald’s and over time closed most of the pubs I took my first illicit pints in.

Along the way they even destroyed the small shopping precinct which held the old Midland Bank, where I opened my first bank account.

All of those lost haunts bounced back today when I came across a series of pictures of the High Street from 1970.

The quality isn’t wonderful, but they are my Eltham, frozen in time, and gone for ever.

They come from Man & Town which was a pack of educational source material aimed at getting kids to look at original historical and contemporary documents.

The idea was rather than tell kids what to think, the documents with a set of briefing notes were aimed at getting them to make judgements about past events and present situations.

The packs were produced by Jackdaw Publications and were very popular in the 1970s, and in the way these things go I bet there will be people who remember using them.

In the case of Man & Town the challenge was to trace how towns develop and the decisions town planners might make to manage change.

Not all the documents were about our High Street but enough were, and interestingly mirrored a real exercise by the planners in the Council who were looking at how Eltham could be changed.

And that is it.

I have chosen just three pictures from the High Street collection, and I leave you to wander back the half century.

Leaving me just to say I did go looking for Jackdaw to ask permission to reproduce the images.

Copyright and seeking permission is important to me, having seen my own stuff lifted and paraded across the internet. 

But after an exhaustive search I am not sure they still exist.  There is what I think is an American company with the same name but they do not appear to be connected to the UK company.

Back copies of many of the packs are still available and command prices between £10 and £20.

Location; Eltham High Street

Pictures; Eltham in 1970, from Man & Town No. 80, courtesy of Jackdaw Publications